This week has been a week of science-themed books, in honor of Pennekamp's Science Week. Tonight's Science Night is a high point of the week, with exhibits, guest speakers, and an opportunity to view the 4th- and 5th-graders' science fair projects.

The coming week includes "Pi Day," on March 14--otherwise written as 3.14 (which happens to be the birthday of Albert Einstein, coincidentally). Classes will be hearing books about math and numbers.

Friday, March 8, is the next book club meeting. We will be discussing The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy. Our next book selection will be Cardboard, by Doug TenNapel--chosen for its brevity and also in honor of the library's new Graphic Novels section. I will have several copies of Cardboard available for students wishing to obtain one, for a reimbursement cost of $7.00.

We have completed voting on the nominees for the California Young Reader Medal. The winners at Pennekamp are Memoirs of a Goldfish, by Devin Scillian, in the Primary category; and Nubs: The Story of a Mutt, a Marine, and a Miracle, by Major Brian Dennis, in the category Picture Books for Older Readers. Complete results can be seen here. Statewide winners will be announced on May 1.

The week of March 18 will be Poem-in-Your Pocket week at Pennekamp. Students are asked to carry a poem with them in their pocket that week to share with friends. I will be photographing students with their poems to create a new pocket poem poster. Teachers will be provided with a daily poem to share with their classes. Poem-in-Your Pocket Day is a national poetry event that, this year, will be on April 18. We are doing our event a little earlier, to add to Pennekamp's Literacy Celebration, which concludes on March 22.

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Barbara Siegemund-Broka, library media specialist, maintains this blog to inform Pennekamp students and families about library news and related content. Any opinions expressed here are solely her own.

What's Ms. Barbara reading?

Last Day on Mars, by Kevin Emerson​

﻿Worth repeating:﻿

​Part of what makes paper a brilliant technology may be, in fact, that it offers us so much and no more. A small child cannot tap the duck and elicit a quack; for that, the child needs to turn to a parent. And when you cannot tap the picture of the horse and watch it gallop across the page, you learn that your brain can make the horse move as fast as you want it to, just as later on it will show you the young wizards on their broomsticks, and perhaps even sneak you in among them.

--from "The Merits of Reading Real Books to Your Children," by Perri Klass, in New York Times, August 8, 2016​